Infection resilient environments

New report: Healthy, safe, sustainable buildings – maximising benefits in building retrofit

A new report making 5 recommendations for how to maximise the benefits in building retrofit to deliver healthier, safer indoor spaces. It supports the government's commitments to transform homes by making them cleaner and cheaper to run through the delivery of the Warm Homes Plan.

The report shows how building retrofit programmes are essential to improving the quality of homes and buildings, meeting national net-zero goals and addressing health inequalities. It presents a range of key factors that will need to be considered including insulation and airtightness, ventilation and air cleaning, and low-carbon heating.

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In March 2020, the Academy and its partners in the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) were commissioned by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance FRS FMedSci to identify the interventions needed in the UK’s built environment and transport systems to reduce infection transmission.

The Academy in partnership with the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) have undertaken a two-phase programme of work on infection resilient environments. The programme set out to understand how to overcome the barriers to infection resilience.

What is infection resilience?

Infection resilience is the use of engineering controls in the built environment and public transport to minimise the risk of the transmission of infections to individuals. Improving infection resilience requires a broad range of interventions to existing infrastructure. These range across occupancy standards, contactless technologies, plumbing and drainage systems and ventilation systems. These can be deployed in public and commercial spaces (places of work and leisure, specialist settings such as hospitals, schools, care homes, transport hubs and carriages), to protect public health during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.